Have a question about CadSoft EAGLE?  Ask our Expert, Richard! (Archive)

Richard,

Thanks to your help my project is almost ready to send to the fab house.

One problem I'm having is that the drc returns overlap errors everywhere I use rectangles.  I also have the problem of connecting signals of different names (sub grounds) to one point - it returns overlap errors.  Is there any way to give a rectangle a name or otherwise make it a part of a network so the drc won't return an error?

Thanks,

Mike

Iain Galloway wrote:

 

Richard,

I have a couple of items that you could perhaps point me in the right direction.

 

We have a board design with a large array of the same components...say 1600 diodes.

 

1) Need to place these on a BRD grid of x by y spaced at nnn apart. I assume this could be done with a ULP or SCR, but I've never really looked into the programming language. Any good starting point for this specifically?

 

2) Unfortunately when the schematic was first made, a generic diode was just picked, and used a standard part, say 1n4442.

Now we'd like to replace them ALL with something more custom and have it in our own library where several different footprints can be tried.

Any ideas here?

I found a ULP that made a library for the board, but it doesn't actually make the parts on the sch/brd point to that new libraray.

Hi Iain,

There is an ULP that might help in placing matrix of components or at least giving an example for this. See the cadsoft.de download area, ULP folder. There is  matrizdeleds.ulp

About the diodes: You can use the REPLACE command for this. It could be executed via a script for all diodes in the project. Syntax is:   REPLACE new_device_name component_name;

Example:

REPLACE 1N4442   D12;

REPLACE 1N4442   D13;

REPLACE 1N4442   D15;

Regards,

Richard

Richard,

I have a couple of items that you could perhaps point me in the right direction.

We have a board design with a large array of the same components...say 1600 diodes.

1) Need to place these on a BRD grid of x by y spaced at nnn apart. I assume this could be done with a ULP or SCR, but I've never really looked into the programming language. Any good starting point for this specifically?

2) Unfortunately when the schematic was first made, a generic diode was just picked, and used a standard part, say 1n4442.

Now we'd like to replace them ALL with something more custom and have it in our own library where several different footprints can be tried.

Any ideas here?

I found a ULP that made a library for the board, but it doesn't actually make the parts on the sch/brd point to that new libraray.

magooo wrote:

 

Dear Richard,

 

I have subscribed and regularly receive "e-mail Notifications" every time when a new message is posted in this discussion thread: Have a question about CadSoft EAGLE?  Ask our Expert, Richard!. This includes questions from users and your much valuable answers.

 

Often I find questions & answers that are very useful for my work and I find it practical to store them as "readme files" on my computer.

This is as simple as saving the e-mail Notification message.

 

Unfortunately however, questions and answers are never tied toghether in the same e-mail Notification message and sometimes they are several days apart from each other. It becomes therefore difficult to find to which question an answer is related.

 

I would like to kindly submit you the following suggestion:

Could you please always copy ("quote") the questions in your answers?

 

Thank you!

Hi Magoo,

I will try to remember to quote the messages.

Regards,

Richard

Hi Marc,

I am sorry but it is not possible to have, for example different areas in the board where signals can have different clearance values. You could start the DRC and "Select" an area without the MCU's area.

I will forward your message to our development team......

Regards,

Richard

Dear Richard,

I have subscribed and regularly receive "e-mail Notifications" every time when a new message is posted in this discussion thread: Have a question about CadSoft EAGLE?  Ask our Expert, Richard!. This includes questions from users and your much valuable answers.

Often I find questions & answers that are very useful for my work and I find it practical to store them as "readme files" on my computer.

This is as simple as saving the e-mail Notification message.

Unfortunately however, questions and answers are never tied toghether in the same e-mail Notification message and sometimes they are several days apart from each other. It becomes therefore difficult to find to which question an answer is related.

I would like to kindly submit you the following suggestion:

Could you please always copy ("quote") the questions in your answers?

Thank you!

Hi Richard,

There's something important that I've not been able to figure out with the Design Rule clearances;

How do you set smaller clearances for fine pitch surface mount IC's and have them pass the DRC test (eg 6 mil), while keeping say a sensible 10 mil clearance for the rest of the board?

I come across this problem with surface mount MCU's and approving hundreds of clearance errors on the fine pitch stuff is hugely time consuming. If the whole pcb is set to 6 mil then the board isn't as safe for shorts or clearances elsewhere.

I assume like most other CAD packages is there a way to say all pads or nets of a designator or package can have smaller clearances? I'd love to know how, thanks.

Best regards,

Marc

Thanks for resetting it

It is working now

Kent

Hi K Sz,

to draw V shaped openings in the board you can use the  WIRE command. Such things will be milled in the manufacturing process,  so you can draw the milling contour in layer 46, Milling. This all can be done by a script, which can be generated by an ULP of course.....

The script can look like this:

LAYER 46;                   #pre-set layer

SET WIRE_BEND 2;     #direct WIRE connections

CHANGE WIDTH 0.01mm;   # small line milling contour

WIRE (-10 0) (10 0) (0 20) (-10 0);   # draw the V shaped contour

Regards,

Richard

Hi Kent,

I fear you have to re-license the Freemium again. I checked you license and reset it before I read that you managed to run EAGLE again. Sorry for the inconvenience......

Richard